Netherlands prevents leading Ankara govt officials from attending rallies

ANKARA/THE HAGUE - Turkey told the Netherlands on Sunday that it would retaliate in the "harshest ways" after Turkish ministers were barred from speaking in Rotterdam in a row over Ankara's political campaigning among Turkish emigres.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had branded its fellow NATO member a "Nazi remnant" and the dispute escalated into a diplomatic incident on Saturday evening, when Turkey's family minister was prevented by police from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam.

Hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags gathered outside, demanding to see the minister.

Dutch police used dogs and water cannon early on Sunday to disperse the crowd, which threw bottles and stones. Several demonstrators were beaten by police with batons, a Reuters witness said. They carried out charges on horseback, while officers advanced on foot with shields and armored vans.

Less than a day after Dutch authorities prevented Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam, Turkey's family minister, Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, said on Twitter she was being escorted back to Germany.

"The world must take a stance in the name of democracy against this fascist act! This behaviour against a female minister can never be accepted," she said. Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb confirmed she was being escorted by police to the German border.

Kaya later boarded a private plane from the German town of Cologne to return to Istanbul, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said on Sunday.

The Dutch government, which stands to lose heavily to the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders in elections next week, said it considered the visits undesirable and "the Netherlands could not cooperate in the public political campaigning of Turkish ministers in the Netherlands."

In Turkey, hundreds of people waving flags flocked to the Dutch missions in Ankara and Istanbul to protest. The Turkish Foreign Ministry asked the Dutch ambassador in Ankara who was on leave not to return "for a while".

The Turkish government planned to campaign in the Netherlands, as in other European countries, to urge Dutch citizens with Turkish nationality to vote for greater powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an April 16 referendum.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will do everything possible to prevent Turkish political tensions spilling onto German soil. Four rallies in Austria and one in Switzerland have been canceled due to the growing dispute.

Erdogan has cited domestic threats from Kurdish and Islamist militants and a July coup bid as cause to vote "yes" to his new powers. But he has also drawn on the emotionally charged row with Europe to portray Turkey as betrayed by allies while facing wars on its southern borders.

The Dutch government had banned Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, from attending a rally on Saturday in Rotterdam but he said he would fly there anyway, saying Europe must be rid of its "boss-like attitude".

Cavusoglu, who was barred from a similar meeting in Hamburg last week but spoke instead from the Turkish consulate, accused the Dutch of treating the many Turkish citizens in the country like hostages, cutting them off from Ankara.